Water (Matt) went backpacking June 4 to June 5, 2011 10.5 miles 5,000 feet gained 1 night

Middle Sister

Whilst I've mounted the young easy sister to the south, and the difficult old one to the north, the moderate middle has managed to elude me. A brilliant weather forecast? Check. A mountain to climb? Check. A partner to Climb with? Check... but not so fast. Al and I were suppose to tick this one off. I've never really see a crevasse on the climbing route on the Hayden glacier, but, just to double-check, I posted a quick query on cascadeclimbers. From there, a fellow on Portlandhikers.org (Where I also post) sent me a message there with some more information, and notice that they would be going for the same objective. Mind you, this was Friday morning.

Friday afternoon, Al lets me know that suddenly his work will not let him off. I'm trying to figure out now if Kara, my fiance, take his place and we just do a high camp for fun, or if we do something different together, or if this fellow who has messaged me would want to link up, and would I want to link up with him, sight unseen and untested in the field?

Well.. alls well that ends well. I met Paul for the first time at 6800ft on a nice melted out spot with a grand view of the entire upland sisters area. Very sunny. Then, patchy high overcast. Very warm.

Didn't freeze in the night. Used snowshoes up to Prouty pinnacle. Cramps, ax, and single pole after that. Still was fairly slushy. Left camp at 5:00. Up top 8:45. Camp 11:00. Depart 12:00. Arrive car 14:02 (beating a monster group of 12 lamezama skiers by 30 minutes, after they passed us early on). Depart Pole Ck TH 14:45. Arrive home 17:30. Watch playoffs. Bummer Dallas left. New friend. Check! Paul and I go about the same speed, similar dispositions towards climbing, likeable fellow. And hes of Polish ancestry, which, you can't beat!

soap creek. can we just call it red volcanic rock silt creek?

north looking a lot burlier than i recall

Trail Talk

3 people have hearted this trip.

jon · June 7, 2011

These are great photographs.

Kyle Meyer · June 7, 2011

So awesome. Nice work sir!

Eric Peterson · June 8, 2011

So cool!

No problems with snow getting to the Pole Creek TH?

Water (Matt) · June 8, 2011

no, its been melted out for a few weeks now. but, only maybe a half mile and you're hitting snow. i walked on top of it for maybe 2 miles until I opted for slowshoes.

Eric Peterson · June 10, 2011

Were you also able to just snowshoe up to the summit or did you need cramps and axes? I heard Middle was more or less a walk up like South, where as North is technical. I've only managed to walk up South in the summer and tried Middle last July but was totally beat just getting past Camp Lake from Pole Creek TH and turned back...

Water (Matt) · June 10, 2011

Middle is between south and north. South literally is a walk-up--even in early spring the red rock up high ends up melting the snow on the ridge next to lewis tarn.

North certainly is hardest. I think I got lucky climbing it my first time. Looking at it from Middle had me quaking..it was gnarly with rime and loaded slopes (I think maybe the warm conditions had me sketched for a crumbler like north)..south is okay, since you're never under a roulette cliff of rock, rime, and thawing ice.

I donned snowshoes from camp to the saddle. partner put his on half way to saddle. then at saddle we went onto slope up to middle to test it out. I thought snowshoes but my partner opted for just booting up, then I realized with a 3-8 inch post holing on that slope, booting up indeed would be best for the final 1000~ or so foot. We went about 100ft and I suggested we crampon up, so we'd have them on if we needed them on the steepest aspect. Probably good we did, there was some blue ice (melted and refrozen rime?) in sections underneath the top layer. Probably could have done it in boots alone or microspikes. The aspect would have made it difficult to use snowshoes, I think.. their aid in steepness has a limit for sure.

on the way down noticed some snow balling on the cramps, but not bad.

where is camp lake?? For north or middle I am always just in the low flats and rises between hayden glacier runout and the SE ridge of N. Sister. Going up to prouty pinnacle and the col there is probably quicker than the S/SE ridge of middle, from Pole Creek TH at least.

Eric Peterson · June 10, 2011

So you guys went up the north ridge? Camp Lake is further up the trail on the way between South and Middle, the Chambers Lakes area is also around there. I only tried from the S or SE ridge of Middle since I heard it was the easiest approach... Nice job guys! Jealous, but I need to take a mountaineering course or something before I venture up anything more than a walk up... :)